The initiators of the Worldwide Virtual Theater Carousel (WVTC) met at earlier editions of ICAF. They decided to translate the admiration and respect they felt for each other's work into a concrete, long-term project for which they decided to use the internet, both for financial reasons and for the particular creative possibilities it offered. That is how the WVTC was born: a network of artistic organisations who, through the internet, film, and new media, exchange and develop new ideas and creative plans.

The Carousel is currently being led by a core group of four community-based arts organisations: Sering vzw in Antwerp, Belgium; Tswelopele Performing Artists in Tembisa township, Gauteng province, South Africa; Arena y Esteras in Villa El Salvador, Lima, Peru; and Teatro Pregones in The Bronx, New York, USA. The Carousel has a virtual office, developed an open source web portal on the basis of a shared digital server. Members of the Carousel can exchange files, leave messages about particular projects, and documentation and reports on the evolution of projects that are under way. That way scenes can be co-created around a theme like, for example, love at old age, which a group in another part of the world can then develop further in their particular cultural context.

In this interactive workshop, Mia Grijp and Rosalba Rolón will demonstrate the virtually endless possibilities of the Carousel by referring to a few concrete examples that the process has already generated. Then, during this extended workshop, they will create new scenes together with you, on the floor, based on earlier scenes made in Antwerp, The Bronx, Lima and South Africa that have been fed by neighbourhood residents.

At 4 PM they'll establish a direct link with WVTC partners in Peru and South Africa and we will show them the newly born scene in Rotterdam and invite their feedback.